Friday, May 2, 2008

Citizen Journalism – A battle of worth

The public sphere was once considered ‘a metaphorical space where ideas are discussed and the truth emerged; a place where what happens becomes, who hears about it, when and how’ (Murphy, 2008, week 1). It was the quickest, most direct means of communication between the public and everyone else; but this like everything else has changed. Hartley questions this democratic view stating instead that, ‘what once was a fair platform for debate is now a media machine, regurgitating a view of the world and expecting that everyone will simply agree’ (Hartley 2005).

This change in the way we absorb information can be explained by two branching arguments, both unfortunately positioning consumers as passive receivers of information. The first suggests that the reason for the change in communication comes as a result of our demands. ‘Communication in general has changed over the last fifty years. We’re not so interested in long winded opinions and actual news, we’re just happy to take it as it comes and swear that its fact’ (Dick 2008, week 5).

The other option suggests that communication methods are changing because the business of communication is changing. Communication has shifted from mediation, defined by Harrington as, ‘a three step process of communication from business, to media, to the public’ (2008, week 5) to mediatisation defined by Murphy as, ‘a coercion of information, not so much the truth, more a splintered version of it, devised for infotainment and consumer positioning. Media tells business how it’s going to be, business agrees, consumers receive, whether it’s the truth or not, it’s all about perspective’ (2008, week 1).

With the introduction of web 2.0, however, things seem to be changing in the realm of the public sphere. In a time where media owns information, we are seeing break throughs in content production, new media battles being raged, to get new opinions and information out there. This drive for people to have their opinions heard is a new brand of open source content production referred to as Citizen Journalism.

This form of content creation defined by Bowman & Willis as, ‘The act of a citizen, or group of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information’ (2003, 9) is pushing new information out there, to be heard amongst the people and through online communities and sharing platforms, all of these new ideas can be passed around, reinstating the original purpose of the public sphere.

However citizen journalism, just like other forms of content production, houses the ability to destroy. Citizen Journalism has seen the public sphere ‘double in size over the last five to ten years’ (Murphy 2008) and although this is a positive step for public communication, any form of content production created on a mass scale has the capacity to cause an information overload. So, when all is said and done, as we learn more about the online environment and learn to control, store and produce content more efficiently, citizen journalism will, like all other forms of online content production will simply add another exciting element to global communication.

Blessed Blogging
Cheers gemini21

2 comments:

yoyopelican said...

Hey Gemini21, thank you for your interesting comments on my blog I did actually enjoy reading Levy’s article on the relationships that he’s found between cyberculture and language.

Furthermore, after having a read through a number of your posts, I can see that you have grown more confident in your blogging techniques and have improved with every post. I particularly enjoyed this post on citizen journalism, which I found to be very informative considering that I myself had missed the lecture. I thought that your ideas were structured very well and that you defined the key principles of the topic in a scholarly fashion with great ease and good use of resources. Overall this only strengthened each point you were drawing and gave you a very authoritative tone, which I thought was excellent.

I found it very interesting indeed how the introduction of web 2.0 ties in with citizen journalism, and was thinking whether the key principles and ideas of web 2.0 (in being associated with almost every topic in this subject), are the driving force behind this digital revolution of the masses, or whether this theme is just a ‘buzz’ word of trendwatching’s generation ‘C’ (as you’ve mentioned in previous posts), where in fact the only thing that’s changed is the web’s usability? Let me know what you think.

catman said...

Like the point about old media treating the consumer as merely a passive user. These organisations see appealing to the mass audience as the most effective way to maximise profit, rather than truly considering and addressing the needs and interests of the people. I think the traditional forms of media have been corrupted in the attainment of achieving the best possible bottom line. These media publishing giants no longer see there purpose as maintaining the right to free speech and democracy as a result. A bit dramatic I guess, but your point to me ight highlights how valuable the 'web 2.0' is in the way of promoting democracy and free speech.Its interactive nature is probably the biggest factor to me, allowing users not only to digest and access news and information but also to contribute as well, ensuring that their beliefs and perspectives can be heard.

On a personal note, and I'm sure you could empathise, I feel a great sense of satisfaction knowing that part of 'me' in terms of my beliefs etc are on the web, excerising my right to free speech. Corny yes, but it is good to know that at the press of a button I know that I can be heard.